Bumming a cigarette to a French child outside the horse butcher

There are some massively fucked up people who get very worked up over declining birthrates. Most of these people, like Elon Musk, are of course concerned principally with the birthrate of specific kinds of people. [[1]]

The New Yorker recently wrote on the topic. They accurately point out that birthrates are declining basically everywhere and no one has a very decent explanation as to why. But the most striking thing in the article is the commentary regarding South Korea. Much of this details how fucking awful hypercapitalism has been to the endeavor and the children themselves (extreme costs and cram schools).

But a particular section broke back into my consciousness about the psychologic impact of just not seeing kids around - that the presence of children is abnormal in some places like large parts of South Korea.

What bubbled this up in my mind was the sudden procession of children that appeared while I was sipping on a happy-hour wine [[2]] along Rue Cler. 

It became rapidly clear to me that a particular moment had been struck in the daily schedule - a little late for school to get out, perhaps this was when parents/caregivers are available to pick up from France’s generous daycare system.

On that note, concerns in France around dipping under the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman has resulted in a bevy of generous support programs. People who give birth have a year off paid, and can take off a further two years unpaid (with your job guaranteed to be there when you return). That gets you up to when school starts for children - age 3. And, in stark contrast to South Korea, children and parents are revered. You’ll notice pregnant women always get a seat on the metro and move to the front of pretty much any line. There are direct, monthly checks for parents, which straight-up double after having two. [[3]]

These are not all well behaving creatures of course. And this is hardly an average French neighborhood. Rue Cler is neat. It’s just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, fairly affluent, and is a charming enough market street that it features in Rick Steves walking tours. Macaron rented here before becoming president.

But it was all very cute. The spell was almost broken when one child asked me for a cigarette in French, [[4]] which immediately veered my thoughts to this bit of surrealism:

Rue Cler is just one of the more affluent market streets that dot Paris, usually a former village that became incorporated into the greater city. This was the village of Gros-Caillou, which just means “big pebble”. My internet poisoned brain immediately went here:

Anyway if you visit Paris it’s a lovely stroll and has everything you could need as far as groceries/necessities are concerned - a fish market, several fruit/vegetable stands, cheese stores, wine stores, and of course a horse butcher.

[[1]]: Because they are Nazis. This isn’t a question anymore. They do the salute and everything

[[2]]: I was not warned how generous the regular wine portions are in France and only became aware at that very moment (previously I had opted for the smallest portion available). It was like a quarter of a bottle

[[3]]: Much of this exists, but in a less generous form, in Quebec. While the programs in France have apparently had some success, Quebec and Canada in general has an aging and declining population

[[4]]: Okay maybe not a child. As I have gotten older, I’ve found it considerably more difficult to determine the exact age of any teen - if you are under like 20, you probably look 12 to me, sorry